


Asking for help

by WritesMinelli



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Mild Blood, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26448859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritesMinelli/pseuds/WritesMinelli
Summary: Rated T for sexual harassment in chapter 3Three times Luz Noceda asked for help and was denied it, and the one time she didn't need to ask
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Comments: 14
Kudos: 109





	1. Chapter 1

Luz Noceda was an imaginative 8 year old. 

She spent her days at home, alone, with a mop in her hand. 

Swinging cleaning supplies and miscellaneous kitchenware around her bedroom, the everyday objects melted before her eyes to form incredible weapons. Tip toeing around the sleeping gremlin that was once a grandfather clock, the child hopped onto the kitchen table, swiping her gauntlet towards the dragon chained on the ceiling. She dipped and dodged, avoiding the tufts of hot fire like a dance. Triumphantly, the brunette raised her gauntlet, ready to take the final, bone-crushing blow; but her confidence was premature and misplaced and she took one too many steps backwards, slipping off the side of the table.

"Hahaha-aaa-AH"

Luz's taunting victory laugh was cut short- replaced by sounds of shocked vocalizations and her back met the carpet with a muffled whump! 

"Owww..." 

She pouted, rubbing her hand along her lower back in an attempt to ease the blunt pain that had settled there. The back of her eyes began to burn as she heard the sound of bubbling laughter.

Laughter.

The pint-sized warrior jumped to her feet, wiping her eyes and putting on her hardest face, she refused to let the dragon see her tears and laugh! She raised her weapon with a newfound strength, determined to end her foe with the courage of one thousand Azuras! But as she stood back up with fist raised, the dragon was gone. In it's place whirrled a rickety ceiling fan.

_Hmmmm_ , Luz pondered to herself, 

_ using my incredible magic and strength on a ceiling fan would not be worth it.  _

The warrior decided to save her strength for a more fearsome battle. She dropped her gauntlet, which had transformed back into a pasta strainer, on the kitchen table and looked around. 

If it had not been the dragon laughing, then where was the incessant giggling coming from? 

Peering around, Luz heard the laughter louder, followed by shouts of joy. 

The brunette spotted the living room window, her face breaking into a snuggle-toothed smile as she ran towards it, barely throwing the curtains open fast enough for them to miss hitting her face.

Her eyes sparkled at the scene before her:

Three girls, all around her age, were riding bikes up and down the street, racing and laughing as a close group; almost a unit itself. 

Luz felt her insides bubble up with a warm excitement: she had never seen girls her age outside of school! When mama was at work she never had anyone to play with!

If they were riding around this street, they had to live around here, right? The sunny girl smiled to herself as she began to daydream about befriending these neighborhood girls- _the sleepovers they could have, movie nights, braiding each other's hair, making friendship bracelets- everything!_

With hope and excitement fresh in her heart, Luz propelled herself down the stairs; barely remembering to take a breath, she raced through unlocking the front door and throwing it open. 

In her childish mind, the neighborhood was washed over in a new light. It looked like a movie, everything was a little bit brighter and every broken flowerpot on her neighbor's stoop seemed to have a purpose. 

Even before she moved to this new city, Luz didn't have friends that lived near her.

Her imagination spiraled,  _ this is just like a movie!  _ She thought to herself, rocking on her feet as she imagined the next years with her neighborhood friends-

Walking home together, having parties, constant sleepovers, being close to their families, takin trips together, studying at each other's houses, going to middle school and high school together-

But first, she had to say hi.

She wrung out her wrists as a sudden burst of nervousness washed over the ecstatic child and settled in the base of her stomach. Ignoring the heavy feeling, Luz finally stepped out of the door, walking towards the road that the other girls were riding on.

She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, standing upright and waiting for the three bikes to make their way back down the road towards her. 

The first one to notice her was the blonde girl. Her hair was cropped just below her ears and highlighted by two streaks of pink.

Luz felt a twinge of jealousy join the nervousness in her stomach,  _ her _ mother would never allow her to have dyed hair. 

The blonde watched Luz, her crystal blue eyes squinting in mischief as she put her hands behind her head while riding; showing off, undoubtedly.

The minute it took for the group to circle around and ride to Luz felt like an eternity for the small child. 

Finally, the three girls came to a halt in front of Luz, who's knees had taken to knocking together from the nerves.

"Hey,"

the blonde hopped off her bike, strolling lazily to the brunette.

"I'm Amy," she continued before pointing at the redhead behind her 

"that's Sasha," 

moving her finger to the other side of her, it stopped on a girl with skin darker than Luz's who wore her hair in two buns;

"and that's Tasha." 

Luz waved quickly, her smile splitting her face up to her eyes. 

"I'm Luz!"

She almost yelled, causing the other girls to give each other a look.

"Luz?" Tasha asked, a little too innocently, "kinda sounds like-"

"You mean like loser?"

Sasha finished for her, bumping their shoulders together as the three of them laughed. Luz wished she could bury herself on that spot. Kicking the dirt in, she took a deep breath, determined to be the fearless warrior once again.

"N-no," she insisted, kicking herself mentally for stuttering, 

"Luz as in 'light.'"

"Mhmm." Amy hummed, her face completely blank.

"Do you have a bike?" She asked, mounting her own.

"Yeah!" Luz answered, the nervousness slipping away, "let me go get it!"

_ It wasn't technically a lie,  _ the brunette thought to herself as she bounded over to her garage. Her cousin had left her bike over during the last family trip. Luz had never really learned how to ride, but how hard could it be? If Amy, Sasha, and Tasha could do it, why couldn't she? 

Wiping the dust off the seat, the Latina wheeled the tan bike out to the road.

"Alright, let's get going then."

Amy gave a look before speeding off down the road, Sasha and Tasha following two strides behind. 

"Whew, okay,"

Luz let out a breath as she watched the girls' backs get farther away,

"Let's do this."

She put her right foot on the pedal like she had seen Amy do, and swung her other around, planting it on the ground. She took another deep breath and lifted her left foot, pushing it down on the pedal. She felt a surge of movement that she was almost sure was herself falling over, yet she stayed up, pedalling on her own towards Sasha, Tasha, and Amy.

Luz did a victory dance in her head, keeping herself focused as the girls turned and passed her, giving her enough time to catch up with them.

Amy seemed a little surprised, but turned her back on the brunette and continued a conversation with the other two. Luz ignored it, keeping her eyes strictly on the road and only focusing enough on the conversation ahead to catch a few words from every sentence.

As they turned at the stop sign, the Latina fell behind, wobbling as she tried to steer correctly. 

A flash of orange flew in front of her, the tabby cat only took a second to cross the road, but that second was long enough. 

Luz felt her feet slip off the pedals; she tried to reposition herself but it was too late.

She fell.

Hard.

Amy and her crew heard the frightened shouts as Luz hit the asphalt. Outstretching her arms to try and soften the blow had only succeeded in sending debris through the skin of her palms. 

The 8 year old sucked in a breath, hot tears covering her face and a metallic taste coating her tongue as she assessed the damage. 

Her knees and hands were scraped badly, one particular gash against her right calf had visibly gone deeper than one layer of skin. Following the cut down to her ankle, she noticed her shoe laces had gotten stuck in the holes of the pedal. 

Luz tried to move her right leg out of the way so she could untangle herself from the bike, but each tiny movement caused a white-hot pain to flash through her body, shaking her to the core. 

As the other girls approached, the Latina couldn't remember a time that she had felt so relieved to hear squeaky bike tires against the road. She looked up at Amy through tears, barely being able to distinguish the girl through the water pouring from her eyes. Gripping her calf in hopes the pressure would take away some of the pain, she was barely audible when she asked the girls to help her with her stuck shoelaces. 

Amy scrunched up her nose and huffed in disgust, motioning towards the mess Luz's fall had made on the road.

"Please," Luz mumbled, "it hurts real bad." She refused to make eye contact.

Just then, the light poles around the neighborhood lit up, signaling that night was about to fall.

"Oops, sorry, we gotta go. It's late," the blonde stated, like everything was completely normal.

She smirked before turning her bike around and pedalling in the opposite direction.

"Sorry Luz-er!"

Luz was unable to untangle herself. She was unable to run after them. She was unable to walk home. She was unable to do anything but watch them leave as she continued to beg for help. 

Until she could no longer see them, and she was left behind.

In the middle of the road.

Completely alone.


	2. Chapter 2

5th grade was always hard. It's an awkward time in life where someone is not really an elementary school student, but not quite a middle schooler just yet. 

It was even harder when you were a 10 year old named Luz Noceda, who struggled in even the most basic academic classes. 

Luz had gotten through elementary school by severely flying under the radar with her less than mediocre grades; well, that and the fact that if she looked at the teacher's times table cards, she could see the answer on the back. The Latina couldn't stand school, much less an almost all-white school that funded its art programs with $20 and a half eaten sandwich. 

An arts program that, by the way, was the only saving grace of the entire school to Luz. 

Bullying, grades, mean teachers, bad lunches-

All those things didn't matter to her when she was in her favorite class, drawing fanart of her favorite book- _The good witch_ _Azura-_ so passionately that she nearly broke the colored pencils. 

She had never known a 45-minute class could go by so quickly until she had enrolled in this semester's advanced art and sculpture class. 

Luz adored everything about that class, from the goopy paint-stained sinks, to tue half-used acrylic paint cans, to even the smell of the classroom- like paint chips and pencil shavings. But above all else, Luz's favorite part of the class was the instructor- Miss Caywood. 

Miss Caywood refused to be called a teacher and revered to herself as an instructor instead. 

"You can't teach art,"

She would say

"Art comes from the soul, you can only give pointers for progress."

And Luz thought maybe that's why she liked her so much. With math and science, answers were exact. Formulas never changed and there was always a right or wrong answer. With art, what's there is just that- there. There are no right or wrong answers and there is no wrong or right way to interpret something.

That's what made her really excited.

Luz's favorite memories from school were never from the cafeteria, or between classes, or even some stupid school dance.

Her favorite memories came from Miss Caywood's hand on her shoulder, mulling over the brunette's pieces with her, forming different interpretations of her artwork, opening Luz's eyes to things she had never seen before in art she had been the one to create.

Luz's days were long, but art class was always perfect. 

At least until the week of the art exhibit.

Luz felt like her entire life could change when she first heard about the art exhibit.

The school was having its annual cultural festival, and Miss Caywood finally had enough students enrolled in her class to have her own area in it! Luz suggested the name "Exhibition of the Inner Wonders and Magic of the Adolescent Pre-teen Mind," but eventually it was just shortened to "Exhibition of Wonders." 

Luz could barely conceal her excitement at the thought of her own artwork at a booth on display! For everyone to see! 

She had never been shy about her art or hid the fact that she did it, heck, she had shown every janitor in the school at least one painting she was proud of. 

But for her artwork to be put in an exhibit, to be looked at by people without her having to force it, felt like a dream come true. 

The day after the announcement, Luz hurried to Miss Caywood's class and wiped all of her older projects off her desk, not-so-gently shoving them into a cardboard box and placing it in the back of the supplies closet.

For an art exhibit, the brunette decided she had to do something new and original. Sure, her Azure fan art was  _ spectacular, _ if she did say so herself, but she wanted this piece to be more about her and less about the fictional women she looked up to and also maybe had a teeny crush on.

Also, come on, the whole school seeing her 30+ artworks of the same magical woman seemed kinda, you know,  _ embarrassing.  _

Cracking her knuckles, Luz leaned back in her chair, a pencil pressed to her temple and a blank piece of notebook paper placed in front of her as she brainstormed. 

Luz was interested in all forms of art, but many of them she found herself falling short in. She loved collages, but the pieces other people made just appeared to be so much more meaningful than what she had made. Magazines were confusing and she could never piece together an accurate portrayal of her point. Sculptures were gorgeous when she saw them, but things like clay never listened to her hands and she found the texture to be nauseating. 

Putting those thoughts aside, she dismissed the notion that she couldn't do something just because it hadn't worked out for her in the past.

This project would be unlike any other she had made; she was determined to step outside her comfort zone. 

Staring out the window, the brunette caught sight of a bird picking apart a dead lizard.

_ And I think I know exactly what I'm gonna do _

she smiled to herself.

  
  


\---------------------

  
  


It was a mixed media sculpture inspired by the cycle of life and death; Luz had spent the entire weekend working on it- and it still wasn't finished. 

It wasn't easy, sculptures were a struggle to her on their own, but she had mixed in aspects of paint, gouache, a little bit of taxidermy, and collage work as well. 

Luz hadn't taken a step outside her comfort zone, she ran a half mile marathon away from it.

And she was proud of herself.

Her legs twitched and shook impatiently as she waited for 5th period to be over with a pained expression on her face- all she could think about was finishing her piece next period and how proud Miss Caywood would be of her. 

After what felt like an eternity and a day, the bell rang in a tuneless beat that had never sounded better to Luz. 

Almost running, Luz made her way to the art classroom, quickly laying out her unfinished work as well as some glue, tweezers, and a touch of confetti just in case. 

The sculpture's base was formed from the bones of small rodents and animals that the artist had picked out from owl pellets and bleached. They were mismatched and glued together to form the skeleton of an unknown imaginary animal with 4 arms and a pair of wings. On top of the skeleton, Luz had placed elements of all four seasons- summer was settled at the head, spring at the torso, fall at all four hands, and snow topped the knees and upper legs to symbolize winter. 

The skull was under a bird's nest, the eye sockets working as craters to hold the eggs while the mother, an owl made from magazine clippings, perfected the craftsmanship of her nest. Each area had life like this, a spring rabbit poking it's head out from the rib cage, a snake drinking from the hands of fall, and a bear hibernating in the crook of the winter knees. 

Each area of the corpse symbolized and displayed a new life, a new beginning. Luz prided herself in it, calling the piece

_ "The Magic of Starting Over." _

Using the tweezers to superglue a particularly difficult piece of fabric on the bunny ears, Luz found herself accidentally tearing off a layer of the snow after a nervous twitch.

"Oopsies,"

She said to no one in particular, standing up. 

Thankfully, the shelf that held the bucket of styrofoam and erasers was directly above her, so she didn't need to move much to grab it. Standing on her chair, she put her arms out towards the blue bucket, wrapping her hands around it and lifting-

"Whew,"

Luz drew her hands back,

"That's a lot heavier than I thought."

Curse her little noodle arms.

Looking around, she spotted a tall boy with dark, curly hair. 

"Jackson!"

She called out, half turning herself around and motioning for the boy to come over,

"Hey, Jacks- woah!"

One wrong foot placement on the slippery chair and Luz's ask for help morphed into a proclamation of surprise.

Grabbing the edge of the bucket to try and steady herself, the girl instead brought it with her on her fall. She caught herself against the edge of the table before she could faceplant, unfortunately the bucket was not as lucky. 

Luz watched in horror as the blue gallon bucket and all of its contents hit the table, directly on top of her progress. Time seemed to stop and slow down as the paint from the sculpture she had spent so long working on and perfecting splattered halfway across the classroom, managing to soak her hoodie in the mixed-color gunk as well. 

She stood there in shock.

She could hear people talking around her, kids getting up, kids switching tables, someone opening the door, paper towels crinkling. She could feel a hand on her shoulder.

Yet somehow everything still felt and sounded like static.

She felt cold.

It was ruined.

  
  


\--------------------

  
  


As they say, the show must go on.

Or, in this case, art exhibit. 

Miss Caywood had given Luz her own wall to hang her pictures for the display. Splayed with Azura fanart, it ended up getting more compliments and attention than Luz would have thought. She cherished each passing comment greatly, but still couldn't help feeling the least bit bitter over the work she had lost. 

Taking a break, she sighed to herself, grabbing her water bottle and snacks out of her bag. Just as she opened the bottle, she noticed a mirror standing alone across the room. 

It reflected her gloomy face and Luz frowned deeper at the way she looked. 

Forcing a smile, she stared at herself as the grin spread slowly further across her face, finally reaching her eyes.

"That's the magic of starting over."

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a 5+1 story but I started crying after making the 3rd chapter so now it's a 3+1 because I can't make Luz suffer for 5 chapters straight shdhshd  
> Please remember to leave a kudos and comment 💘 I love reading your feedback!


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